Description: HistoricMapsRestored.com is an existing site that sells prints of restored historic maps.

Logo Design Brief

The logo should be:
- simple and elegant
- convey and identity of quality, history, ????
- in vector format (photoshop)
- title: Historic Maps Restored
- subtitle: by Maps of the Past Inc
- We are re-branding away from old name Maps of the Past Inc, but still want to mention in the logo perhaps under the main logo text in much smaller font size. If looks too crowded, please suggest alternatives.
- colour: to match overall site design.
-The winner may be announced before the Template winner.

Template Design Brief

Deliverables

A coded (HTML/with external CSS file) 3 column template, to be used in an ecommerce application. We will convert the template to the ecommerce application ourselves.

INITIALLY, PLEASE DELIVER ONLY THE HOME PAGE. I WILL THEN SELECT 2 or 3 SHORT LISTED DESIGNERS WHO CAN SUBMIT DESIGNS FOR THE CATEGORY PAGE, AND THE PRODUCT PAGE.

Also,
There will also be some additional logos for shipping, phone number, etc etc

GENERAL DESIGN GUIDELINES
-simplicity and cleanliness of design are key. Contrasting design elements/text. White or light coloured background.
-a fixed width of 800 from the LEFT EDGE of LEFT SIDEBAR to the LEFT EDGE OF the RIGHT SIDEBAR (so total width will be around 1000px).
-header depth approx 90px deep.
deep. -the current template uses a lot of USA colors (red, white , blue) and imagery. It may an idea to somehow retain some of this theming in a very subtle way..but toned down.

HEADER, LEFT & RIGHT SIDE BARS,FOOTER (applied to ALL pages of site)

1)Template Width 2 options (a) 800 px total width (b) 800px from the left side to start of right hand sidebar (like as in European-wall-tapestries.com)

2)Background outside template area: a soft non white colour, brownish, beige etc
3)Header ideally, not more than 90px deep. Logo will go in top left area. Phone number on the right, and strap line in the center .or similar. Background to be white. Also incorporate a horizontal menu bar to separate header from body of template of different colour to give contrast.
4)Left Hand Menu/SideBar:
-must be table driven and css styled with regular html link.
-separators to indicate different sections (see European-wall-tapestries.com). The maps will be categorized into these different sections.
-Use css hover-over styling to highlight menu choices.
-most important is that the menu should be easy to read ie. Use contrasting colours.
-leave some space above and below menu options to insert other logos as needed.
-put the Site Search bar to be above menu options.
5)Right hand sidebar
-table driven blocks of space where various trust logos will be added
-also to be added: mini-shopping cart, favourite products, opt-in form for newsletter
6)Footer: to be used additional links to interior pages and credit card logos.

Today is currently a load of text blurb. What we want here is a 3 by 3 (or 3 by 4 ?) grid of images and links to the main menu choices. (see http://www.european-wall-tapestries.com) below for inspiration. Suggest to code with tables. An idea could be to turn the corners of the maps up slightly to leave room for some description text and the text link. The image must be linkable and also there must be a separate underlined text link to the menu option. Make the maps same dimensions and cleanly bordered.

An alternative to using map images could be to re-use somehow the images at the top of the current category pages (ie the battle scene at top of Civil War Maps page etc)just an idea

Create a small horizontal zone (table row ?) above the grid for additional text description of the home page, and potentially also one under the grid.

CATEGORY PAGE CENTRAL AREA only

Uses the generic template (header,footer,sidebars).
A category is one of the menu options reached by left hand menu or home page grid of maps. (eg all Civil War Maps).

I think these should be a grid of maps (linkable) with text link below and perhaps small description. One way to make it different is to somehow subtly use the graphics currently on the site at the top of each of the category pages (see Civil War Maps there is a battle depiction of the civil war). If those images dont work there, then perhaps they can be used on the home page in the grid of menu options?

There should be space above and below the grid of options to allow text description etc (ie history of civil war maps etc)

PRODUCT (MAP) PAGE CENTRAL AREA only

Uses the generic template (header,footer,sidebars).

When you click on a map or its title you get taken to this page featuring the map.

We want to have 2 images per map. An image of the map, and a close up image. Suggest to tile these two images next to each other with link under each saying click to enlarge. Today, these images are HUGE and taken up most of the page. Please reduce them to sensible proportions (can be enlarged when clicked).

On each map page, there is a section of text entitled Have your Map printed on one of our Fabulous print Medias which outlines the paper quality choices. Please strip out the ADD TO CART buttons and the PRICES and make smaller version of it, with a nice simple border, that can be inserted appropriately on the page. Perhaps it could be an image or inserted using javascript, as this piece of text does not need to spidered/indxed by the search engines.

For the price options, I like what the site (below) http://store.pastpresent.com has done to show the pricing options in a nice clear white box and clear and contrasting ADD TO CART button..

Coding Guidelines
-fully compliant HTML
-All codes should pass validation and the page should look the same in all A grade browsers
-formatting via external CSS file
-I do not trust reliability of CSS positioning (varies across browsers) so please use TABLES to define the header, sidebars,footer and body zones.
-all internal links to menu options to be coded with relative urls (ie /category/page1.html) AND the Base Href = tag added to the header code where the full domain url is stated (http://www.historicmapsrestored.com).

Reference Sites and what I like about them (design wise or use of coding)

http://www.euroepean-wall-tapestries.com
-table driven template structure
-separators/sections used in left hand menu which break up the menu (this is mandatory for us)
-general dimensions / height & width of header and sidebars
-On home page, the central tiled category options